A mobile home is hardly a house. It’s a truck with a bed inside. On the other hand, the N55 WALKING HOUSE is the premier modular dwelling system. In addition to its ability to slowly troll surrounding landscapes, it collects energy by using solar cells and small windmills. There is even a system for collecting rain water and another for solar heated hot water. Of course, let’s not forget the crapper and the fireplace, the WALKING HOUSE has both.

Unlike a mobile home, you’re living a pollution-free life but you’re still a nomad. Roaming the countryside with nothing more than your own bedroom sounds great, then you realize you have to eat. Not a problem considering a small greenhouse unit can be added to the basic living module, eliminating the possibility of a food shortage. When we find ourselves in a post-apocalyptic future caused by mankind’s irresponsibility to maintain mother Earth, we’ll all wish we were living in the WALKING HOUSE.

Link [via]

Oliver Bishop-Young, a Goldsmiths University graduate, demonstrated projects regarding skips at the New Designers showcase in London earlier this month. For those not familiar with a skip or what it is, simply put: it’s a dumpster. With the massive amount of idle skips laying around the city and all the crap we throw into landfills, we might as well get something out of it.

So, Oliver set up a website that allows visitors to search for locations of skips throughout London, complete with pictures. Additionally, a group of folks have pitched in converting empty skips into public spaces such as lounge areas, swimming pools and gardens. Even a mini-ramp built in a skip for skateboarding was made from a collection of materials gathered from other skips. All that’s missing is the skip crapper.
(more…)

Japanese company ELPA has introduced a meter that plugs between your AC and your electric appliance to measure the amount of electricity drawn out. Apart from just measuring the usual energy consumption over time in Watts, it also tells you how much you should be expecting to pay - in terms of yen according to standardized Japanese power charges. What’s more is that it calculates the amount of Carbon Dioxide incurred, so you can call that up with a button press and feel bad about yourself. I guess this is a self-check for geeks that cannot live without gadgets, or earth lovers trying to figure out how much power they can save by turning their refrigerators’ temperature up. This plug will only concern Japan in terms of displaying the correct power bill, the carbon dioxide and energy measurement can be applied anywhere I suppose. These power meters are being sold at $27 now. — Sam Chan

ELPA

Sanyo Japan announced today that they have started to commercialize their proprietorial virus-removal technology onto their line of air purifiers as well as air-conditioners. A regular air purifier removes dusts, if the pores on the sieve gets smaller, it can pick up flower pollens or even some bacteria. If you want to move up one level, we have sieves with electrical properties that can attract and hold these particles and hence attaining an even higher level of air “purification”. However, virus is something that is difficult to tackle, mainly because of their small sizes, even the air treatment systems in most of the Operation Theaters in hospitals cannot remove virus. Sanyo Japan has figured out a way to do that cheap and small enough to fit in your house. The simple story is that they’re using electrolyzed water to attack the virus structure so that they cannot attack your body cells and make you sick. Their lab claimed that the Virus Washer technology is able to remove 99% of norovirus (recent diarrhea outbreak) in air, which cannot be removed by alcohol alone. The whole line of products was demoed this morning, so expect them to be out at the market real soon, no word on price yet. — Sam Chan

Virus Washer technology lab results [Sanyo Japan]
Virus Washer series [Sanyo Japan]

French cosmetic conglomerate Clarins has recently introduced a new patented beauty product dubbed Expertise 3P. Supposedly this solution will protect your skin from aging due to Electromagnetic waves as well as air-pollution. The secret lies in the active ingredients Thermus Thermophillus and Rhodiola Rosea which are extracted from plants. We have no idea if this thing really works, neither do we know if EM waves themselves (UV we know) can really harm our skin. If you are up for a try, the 3.5oz bottle is selling for $40 online now. Do let us know. — Sam Chan